For the fourth time in the last five years, the Ferrari Club of America-Southwest Region turned Colorado Boulevard in staid Old Town Pasadena, Calif., into a sea of red, with occasional patches of blue and yellow.

The annual Concorso Ferrari is the club's biggest and best event of the year, with 150 Prancing Horses of all vintages lined up and down the middle of the closed-down street. The whole thing is free and open to as many tifosi as want to crowd onto the asphalt. This year, as in past years, organizers gave up trying to estimate crowd sizes and just went with “more than 10,000.”

And what those 10,000 got to see was the biggest collection of Maranello magic outside of Concorso Italiano.

There were two genuine Ferrari Formula One cars this year. Dr. Tony Nobles once again graciously showed his F2001 ex-Michael Schumacher F1 car. We say “graciously” because in past years we've seen him let kids climb into what has to be one of the world's most delicate and powerful machines.

A few car-lengths down the street restoration specialist Steve Tillack--who always brings a host of great machines to these events--had the ex-Niki Lauda 1974 Ferrari 312 B3, chassis No. 15.

“It has two wins, five poles and six fastest laps,” said Tillack. “But you better check that; I'm not positive about the six fastest laps.” Tillack is ever the perfectionist.-clo trimmed He got to drive this car at Watkins Glen soon after the customer bought it. “Oh, man,” he said.

We have to agree, though we have no hope of ever driving the car.

There were many 348s, 355s, 360s, 430s and 458s, along with Dinos, Maranellos and a good showing of 330s and a 612 or two. We saw one F40 and a pair of Enzos as well. This year there weren't as many of the older cars as we've seen in past years.

Best in show went to Charles “Skeets” Dunn's 1951 212A Vignale Coupe, and we couldn't argue with the judges on that. Dunn is known, revered and maybe even a little feared among Ferrari collectors. (Feared because of his insistence on the proper care and feeding of these rolling artworks. We once heard a story about Dunn spotting a certain Lusso driver who had let his passenger eat an ice cream in the car. Eat an ice cream in a Lusso! Dunn reportedly pulled the car over à la the California Highway Patrol and admonished the driver on the spot. The Lusso survived.)

One of our favorites, maybe our most favorite at this year's Concorso, was what was listed as a replica 1959 Testarossa. Whether it is a replica may be open to interpretation, though the owner clearly calls it a replica. Here's the story:

Peter Giacobbi lived in Turin, Italy, for 13 years. He had always wanted a real Testarossa but realized that he'd never have the kind of cash such a car requires. Until one day . . .

“My son-in-law said, ‘There's some guy up in the hills got something up there . . .'”

That tip lead to a huge warehouse in Colico di Piano near Como that was full of car parts. Up in the rafters was a car body that sure looked like a Testarossa. Well, it was, or it might have been, or could have been had things gone differently.

The story Giacobbi got was that the body was one of four made by an old carrozzeria that was vying to be the body maker of record for the Ferrari Testarossa in the 1950s. The carrozzeria didn't get the deal, and this body sat for several decades. Giacobbi bought the body, brought it to his current home in Orange County, Calif., and got to work.

With much metal shaping and other help from Dan McLeod of Anaheim he was able to fashion a chassis, suspension, gauges and seats that are close to true to the original, including a 1964 330 front suspension, a rear from a 400i and a 4.4-liter V12 engine, transmission and differential from a 365. The body is still raw aluminum, with welds on the fenders and a rough, machined finish with no paint. It's glorious.

Giacobbi took it out on the track at Fontana, and all they had to do was adjust the rear spring rates.

“It's raced three times and it's won its class all three times,” he said.

The handling is very neutral. Better lap times are hindered mainly by the high sidewalls on the original tires. But that is all being worked on.

“It's a lot perfecter than it used to be,” he said.

Look for the blinding reflection of Giacobbi's shiny Testarossa at a vintage race near you.

And look for the Concorso Ferrari next year at about the same time and in about the same place. Until then, ciao, baby.

Mark Vaughn
- After slumming in Europe five years covering F1 etc. Mark Vaughn interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show has been with us ever since because no one else will take him. Anyone?
See more by this author»